Thomas Arnold was educated at Winchester and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was elected a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, in 1815. After ordination and marriage he settled at Laleham, Middlesex, in 1819, becoming a tutor to university entrants. During his tenure as Rugby School’s headmaster (from 1828 until his death), Arnold gradually raised Rugby to the rank of a great public school.

Arnold was not an innovator in teaching method; his aim was to reform Rugby by making it a school for gentlemen. He used prefects more fully than any previous headmaster. Under the prefect system the older boys served as house monitors to keep discipline among the younger boys; this system was adopted in most English secondary schools. The Arnold tradition spread to other schools through Rugby pupils and masters, and many schools established after Arnold’s death were modeled on Rugby.

Arnold was the author of five volumes of sermons, an edition of Thucydides, and a three-volume history of Rome.